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Look guys, I am not trying to be insulting to you and there is no reason to be insulting to me. I volunteered for about 8 years to manage or help coach my two sons in youth ball. Winning was a goal - sure - why keep score if it is not. But my primary goal was to teach the kids the fundamentals: how to throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball and know the rules. None of the kids I coached ever went pro, but I hope they can go to a ballgame and appreciate it more because of what I taught them. I hope that when they are called down from the stands to umpire a game for their kids that they will have a better understanding of the rules than the high school kids we got. Passing along the game of baseball to the next generation borders on a sacred duty, or at least it used to be. And it bugged me no end to hear a high school baseball player umpiring our games say non-sense like "the ground can't cause a fumble" when the ball popped out after a diving catch or to get a deer-in-headlights look when I said the word obstruction.
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